Stokely Carmichael by Melanie




Introduction:

My name is Stokely Carmichael and I will stand for nothing less than Black Power. It is 1968 and I am a civil rights activist, head of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, and prime minister of the Black Panther Party. I may be a radical thinker to most but as I said before I will stand for nothing less than black power. The American mindset is that we are living in a white world being that the whites have control over everything. The white are in control of the most powerful part of America and that is the Federal Government. They have better jobs, make a better salary, and are the display of the American Dream. Due to skin color, blacks are treated differently. Blacks have no power in America. Unless blacks demand power for them selves in America, they will not succeed in their ultimate goal of freedom, and continue to be under the control of the whites.

As much as blacks respect the white supporters of the civil rights movement, black organizations should have no white members. If we continue to have whites in our organizations victory in reform will ultimately be because of the white members. Black’s must solely be in full control of reforming the problem they are in. If blacks let whites in these organizations, they will continue to have control over blacks. African Americans must maintain the Black Power mindset so they do not let white power keep ruling their lives. Whites will not only get the credit for the reform, but also have no idea of the degrading hardship’s blacks have lived through. Before the whites can enter organizations for black power, they must reform in their own white communities.

I support the Black Panther Party because in making non-violent civil rights movement’s blacks are setting themselves up for even more degrading moments filled in the life of an African American. African Americans, since slavery, have had to serve for the white and ultimately live in a white world. Black’s have stood up for them selves in the past and have made reforms but it is after many of them died standing up for their rights, that white America saw that a change needed to arise. If a black man stand’s up for him self he is lynched, or beaten, or scolded by the white. Black’s need to stand up for them selves in this ongoing struggle and finally be able to be proud of the strong African American people they are, without white interference.

Work Cited:

"Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee." The Sixties Project. 28 Jan. 1999. Viet Nam Generation, Inc. 7 Dec. 2007 <http://www3.iath.virginia.edu/sixties/HTML_docs/Resources/Primary/Manifestos/SNCC_black_power.html>.

Ture, Kwame. "American Experience: Reflections on an Era." PBS. 23 Aug. 2006. 7 Dec. 2007 <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/eyesontheprize/reflect/r06_tactics.html>.

"American Experience: Blacks Define Themselves." PBS. 23 Aug. 2006. 7 Dec. 2007 <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/eyesontheprize/story/19_nbpc.html#video>.

Carmichael, Stokely. Ready for Revolution. New York: Scribner, 2003. 1-797.

Stokely Carmichael by Melanie